Sunday, December 15, 2013

Holiday Baking: Spiced Apple Cookies

I like a little spice cookie and am always looking for new recipes to incorporate spice into my holiday cookie basket. I found this interesting recipe on Food52 from user Kelsey the Naptime Chef, who credits a neighbor for this recipe. It's a straight-forward recipe that results in a moist, cake-like cookie with a nice apple pie-like flavor as promised by the baker.

2. In a small saucepan add the raisins and fill with water until raisins are just covered. Bring to a boil and then
remove pan from heat. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Drain raisins and reserve.

3. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat together shortening and brown sugar. Then, beat in the egg
and the milk.

4. In a separate bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves and nutmeg. With the mixer
on low, slowly add this to the shortening mixture. Beat until everything is well blended.

5. With a wooden spoon stir in the nuts, apple and drained raisins. Drop by heaping teaspoonful onto cookie
sheet. Press the tops of the cookies down slightly with two fingers. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. In my oven, these took about 15 minutes.
I had no troubled with this recipe, and I really liked these cookies, but my counterpart felt they could use a bit of icing. The next time I try this recipe, I'll take his advice.